We are a Christian Network that promotes Christian books through press releases, social networking, blog showcases, and charities, including the orphans in Nepal and Wakulla Correctional.
Don't forget to check out the free books on the site - right column following book trailers.

Make sure you have a follow button toward
the top of your blog or an option for visitors to follow you by email. Also
make sure your name is somewhere on your site – you want to promote yourself
as an author.

You should post something at least once or
twice a week. Static sites aren’t as good. You want visitors to interact with
you by being able to leave comments.

Make sure you have a button for easy
sharing – it will boost traffic to your site.

Amazon
and Book Platform

Yes

No

Comments

Are you a published author (self-published
or traditional?

If you don’t
have any published books yet, keep reading. You will learn some valuable
tips.

Do you have a minimum of ten reviews with
at least a 4.0 overall rating for your book or books? If the book is rated by reviewers lower
than a 4.0, you need to figure out why. Poorly rated books don’t sell (unless
they are pornographic or media-driven).

At the Florida
Christian Writers Conference VIP’s said traditional publishers want self-published
authors to have more than 100 book reviews. This would come into play if you
wanted to traditionally publish a self-published book.

Do you have an avatar and up-to-date bio on
Amazon?

This is free
advertisement. A must, especially if you are self-published.

Have you set up and completed all the
tasks in Author Central on Amazon?

Make sure you
answer all the questions, not just your bio and avatar, but your Author Page
URL for Amazon, blog feed link, twitter feed link and multimedia if you have a
book trailer.

If you have published books on Amazon, is
all the information filled out for each book on Amazon?

Amazon allows
authors a lot of space at the top for editorial reviews, product description,
et cetera. Don’t waste this space. Use it.

Have you answered the “book extras” that
link to Shelfari?

This is directly
from Amazon: Readers can see Book Extras
for your book on the Kindle and Kindle apps for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.
You can write them in Shelfari, the community-powered encyclopedia for book
lovers. This information appears before, during, and after the reader
experience, so put your one-of-a-kind knowledge to use. The link for this can
be accessed through Author Central.

Have you written book reviews?

This is one way
to help other authors and be sociable. Amazon will track your ranking as a
reviewer—another way to gain exposure.

Are your books priced competitively?

List the price of the author’s book in the
first block and a best-seller in the same category in the second block.
Compare. If you book is priced higher, lower it.

There are so many good ones, I am not
going to list them, but be sure you read my book, How to Launch a Best-Selling Christian Book if you have joined
or are interested in joining the John 3:16 Marketing Network.

You have some –
don’t just focus on what you need to do, pat yourself on the back for what
you have already done and done well.

What are your weaknesses?

Be honest – no
one hits a home run every time he stands up to the plate in baseball. Many
strike out – but they come back again and again, unless they don’t have the
talent and then they are sent down to the minors. If you have the ability,
you will succeed if you keep learning and don’t give up.

How much money should you spend each month
on marketing?

Don’t go into
debt - ever! There is no guarantee that your costs will be recouped in book
sales.

What are the things you can’t skimp on
when it comes to marketing and selling your book?

An editor, a book cover designer, and pay the hefty fee and
buy your own ISBN numbers from Bowker if you need to purchase your own. Don’t
buy from a cheap source.

A well-written press release is also
helpful.

If you are not a
top-notch writer, hire someone to write one for you.

Should you spend money on publicists,
formatting books for Kindle and Smashwords, expensive email blasts, book
trailers, overpriced POD publishers, or anything that costs more than $100?
Like expensive book contests?

Absolutely not.
You can do what a publicist does yourself. If you can read, you can format
your own books for Kindle and Smashwords. Using Animoto (listed above), you
can do your own book trailer for free. You can publish through Lightening
Source and Create Space for a very reasonable price (less than a hundred
bucks on either one), and the best book contests don’t charge or only charge
a small amount to cover the basic costs.

General
Observations

I would recommend you look over the list above
and your responses and make an assessment of what your strengths and weaknesses
are. Be kind to yourself – just going through this list is the first step in
learning more about how to market your book. One of my concerns with new
authors coming into the John 3:16 Marketing Network is sometimes they want to
launch a book too soon. You need to work towards the goals above, particularly
the Amazon platform goals, to have a successful launch. Waiting until you have
a lot of reviews, a minimum of ten and preferably thirty or more with at least
a 4.2 rating will go a long ways toward selling books and having a successful
launch.

Call
to Action – what three things will you work on now—don’t wait. Fill in the list
below and shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you will land among the stars.

ID

Action
Item

Start

Achieved

1

[mm/dd/yyyy]

2

[mm/dd/yyyy]

3

[mm/dd/yyyy]

Additional
Comments:

After
reading through this list, if you would be interested in some personal
coaching, I will be offering one-one-one coaching via phone, Google-plus
Hangout, or on Skype on a limited basis for $55 for one hour. Only one hour per
person. My goal is to help you learn how to market your book and make you
self-sufficient. Knowledge is power. You can do it!

***

I will be hosting a Google Hangout tonight at 7pm (April 29) to discuss book launches, specifically the new way we are doing them and why.